The Center for Communicating Science capped its 2024 fall semester with an improvisational workshop facilitated by interdisciplinary Ph.D. student Heather Winslow entitled “Can Humor Be Taught?” After an introductory question asking if participants believe that humor can be taught, Winslow, who had served as a graduate assistant for the center during the previous academic year,  led participants through improv games and exercises to teach humor perception. Participants created ridiculous scenes, laughed, and connected over the course of an uproarious afternoon on December 12.

A participant looks at the camera while another laughs.
At the beginning of the workshop, participants introduced themselves with a silly fact. After breaking the ice, Winslow led the group through a series of improvised stories and scenes. Photo by Heather Winslow for Virginia Tech.

    Winslow had wanted to do comedy since she was a little kid, when she found that humor helped her get through the times she was most sad. However, she didn’t take her first improv class until she was 23 years old. She stated that it took a year of “doing it and sucking” to get comfortable with the skill. She soon became a comedy leader in Charlottesville, where she lives, teaching children improv, stand-up comedy, and creative writing while getting her bachelor’s degree at the University of Virginia (UVA). She noticed that these lessons were especially helpful for neurodivergent kids, helping them find their authentic voices.

A participant sits in a chair, speaking and gesturing with his hands.
In one exercise, participants sat in a circle and were challenged to tell a story with a twist: each person could only say one word at a time. The group created an absurd story about beans and aunt mermaids, sharing many laughs in the process. Photo by Heather Winslow for Virginia Tech.

    After writing a capstone paper entitled “Can Humor Help Heal?” Winslow found her way to an interdisciplinary graduate program at Virginia Tech. In her first year, she juggled a difficult neuroscience class (which she passed with pride) with a biometry course and a creative writing practicum. Winslow loved living a half-science, half-creative life — despite the difficult courses, she reflected, “Academia, when you have the right professors, can feel like a really safe environment to grow and thrive.”

Four participants stand in a semi-circle, looking at each other
A later game involved an interviewer leading a panel on a topic such as pirates, with each panelist challenged to develop a pirate persona as they responded to questions. Photo by Heather Winslow for Virginia Tech.

    Winslow cited Dr. James Dubinsky, a retired veteran and associate professor in the Department of English at VT, as a major influence on her Ph.D. proposal. She said that he loved the idea of storytelling to help veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), so she shaped her research around leading creative writing workshops with humor perception with this population. She hopes to get started on the full research project next year. While the research is costly and necessitates grant funding, it also inspired Winslow’s workshop with the CCS, as she wanted to explore some related ideas.

Three participants are in a line facing a fourth. The two participants in the back of the line are miming digging.
In another exercise, Winslow asked a participant to step outside, while the rest of the group determined a reason as to why the participant was late for an important event. When that participant returned, they had to guess the reason for their tardiness while their peers acted it out through charades. Photo by Heather Winslow for Virginia Tech.

    Winslow said that she received good feedback on the workshop and that she enjoyed the opportunity to laugh with others at the end of the semester. It was the “most fun I had in a long time,” reflected Winslow, and she hopes to recreate the workshop at the end of subsequent semesters. 

Two participants face each other, arms out in balletic flourishes.
Another image from the charades improv game. The afternoon workshop was filled with many stories, some personal, and many silly. At the end of Winslow’s workshop, however, everyone had learned to trust and laugh with each other. Photo by Heather Winslow for Virginia Tech.

    One participant asked for a list of games so that they could play them with their friends, she said. Winslow recollected previous improv classes she has taught and how they helped colleagues feel catharsis and relief in a way that was “pretty contagious.” To Winslow, improv is about allowing yourself to be as silly as you can while knowing that everyone will support you. Similarly, she loves storytelling because of the ways it is like improv, but with the added benefit of not having to rely on an audience for laughs. Above all, Winslow said, she has found that people listen more when a personal story is attached. 

By Bria Weisz, Center for Communicating Science graduate assistant